Two Sources: Crist Will Abandon GOP and Run as Independent

Two highly placed and independent sources, speaking strictly on background, tell me that Gov. Charlie Crist is preparing to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent in the race for the U.S. Senate.

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Another well-placed source tells me the reason several Crist campaign staffers left recently is because, being committed Republicans, they refused to take part in an independent Senate run by Crist. That’s not confirmed by an independent second source, but it does ring true.

From an appearance on Fox and Friends: “(Obama has) done some things that are good for our state; he’s done some things that are not good for our state. But what I have to do is make sure that I’m working with anybody who will do things that are good for our state and not just cast them aside because they have a different letter behind their name.”

On supporting the stimulus: “I don't apologize for it at all. It was the right thing to do. We needed the money. It saved 87,000 jobs for our state.”

More: “I understand that different people view (the stimulus) in a different way. In the shoes that I stand in right now, I've got to look out for the people, and that's what I'm doing."

The problem here is that Democrats could wind up doing what we did in Connecticut when Lieberman went independent -- we abandoned the actual GOP candidate to get behind the non-Democrat with the best chance of winning. If Democrats did that, they'd have most of the Democrats plus a solid block of Crist RINOs and independents.

Crist's Credit Card Attack on Rubio:That first link also rebuts Crist's recent attack on Rubio, claiming that Rubio used his party-provided American Express card to cover a lot of personal expenses. Rubio has already responded 1) he didn't use it for that purpose much and 2) he reimbursed the party for all those expenses. Using it as currency of convenience, I guess.

But it turns out Rubio was pretty thrifty with the card, too:

According to published reports, the former RPOF chair, the bovine bully-boy buffoon Jim Greer, spent more in a month than Rubio did in his entire two years as state House speaker. If all the Crist campaign has on Rubio is $53.49 at Winn-Dixie in Miami for ``food” and a couple of plane tickets for his wife, then it's game, set and match, as far as the Republican primary for Senate is concerned.

From what's been made public, Rubio's credit card expenses make him the most frugal of the Republican leaders with RPOF credit cards.